The Star-Ledger

Speaking to a journalism class, Rutgers University Athletic Director Julie Hermann said “That’d be great” about the prospect of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger dying. “I’m going to do all I can to not to give them a headline to keep them alive because I think I got them through the summer,” she said.

Hermann’s remarks, reported by Simon Galperin, who was in the class, preceded last week’s layoffs at the newspaper, in which 167 people lost jobs. Galperin gave The Star-Ledger a copy of a recording of her remarks, The Star-Ledger’s Steve Politi writes, saying her remarks achieved “a perfect level of awfulness.”

In a statement from Rutgers, Hermann did not apologize or explain her attack on the newspaper, instead stating that she was sharing her experiences “in an informal way and out of the glare of the media spotlight.” Because who would have imagined that journalism students would have recording devices?

“Another 124 full- and part-time jobs were eliminated at the company’s weekly newspapers and at the dailies in Trenton, Easton, and South Jersey,” Mueller and Sherman write. “At NJ.com, 15 of 77 employees were let go.”

Matt Kraner, the president of NJ Advance Media, the new company that will provide content and other services to the papers, told The New York Times the group “will be adding 27 editorial positions to increase the numbers of reporters and photographers on the street.” The cuts will nevertheless present “a net reduction in editorial staff,” Ravi Somaiya reports. Read more

The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger will cut about 25 percent of its newsroom today, Ted Sherman and Mark Mueller report. Of the 167 cuts total at the paper, about 40 will come from the newsroom. NJ.com is also being hit.

The Advance-owned paper last week announced the creation of a new company called NJ Advance Media. Following the script set at other Advance properties, the new company will publish the Star-Ledger, NJ.com and other newspapers.

The cuts aren’t necessarily immediate, Sherman and Mueller report:

In packets that were being handed out this morning, those being told their jobs were being eliminated were offered severance packages if they agreed to stay with the newspaper until NJ Advance Media, new media company being formed, is up and running.

Usually on days with unusual weather (such as snow on St. Patrick’s Day in many places,) I turn to the Newseum for a collection of front pages. But, “Due to inclement weather, the Newseum will be closed Monday, March 17,” they announced on Facebook.

“No front page uploads either?” one woman asked.

Those fronts are up now, but it looks like most newspapers in snowy places chose to focus on other things today on their fronts (and I don’t blame them. It’s March 17.)

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated [Chris Christie spokesperson Michael] Drewniak referred to the Port Authority’s executive director as a “piece of crap.” While Drewniak did call him a “piece of excrement,” it was David Wildstein who referred to the executive director as a “piece of crap.”

Advance’s New Jersey papers have some “channel conflict,” (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger Publisher Richard Vezza tells his paper. So while Vezza stresses that Advance is not thinking about the changes it’s implemented in other markets, like reducing print frequency or home-delivery days, he said “the company is looking at everything, from combining sales forces to how to organize its news operations,” Ted Sherman reports.

“He said he owned domains, or web addresses, in the names of some Star-Ledger editors. He requested we ask the bosses if they wanted to buy the domain names from him.” He offered to send his proposal to Mueller’s home address, “which he then named.”

Indeed, an anonymous buyer using a private domain registrar purchased the web names for the paper’s editor and publisher, records show. The sites were redirected to a pornographic web site.

The Advance-owned paper’s newsroom isn’t a union shop, but its pressmen, engravers, machinists and mailers — who “handle the newspapers after they emerge from the presses, helping insert advertising supplements and preparing the papers to be loaded on delivery trucks” — have unions. Negotiations with all but the mailers have been fruitful: Read more

I was not happy. I have two teenage sons who like having a dad to make them breakfast in the morning. I have a wife who works full-time.

When I was the columnist, I’d often walk through the door after 2 a.m. after covering a game in the Bronx or Flushing. But at least I’d be home. A baseball beat writer spends about 150-170 nights per year in a hotel room between the months of February and October.

Had the Ledger been looking for a Yankee beat writer when I was on my way out at ESPN The Magazine, I would not have even filled out an application.